This copy is for your personal non-commercial use only. To order presentation-ready copies of Toronto Star content for distribution to colleagues, clients or customers, or inquire about permissions/licensing, please go to: www.TorontoStarReprints.com

WASHINGTON—Canada’s lobster and crab fisheries pose an “extinction-level threat” to the endangered North Atlantic right whale, according to a new U.S. report calling for an American boycott of “negligent” foreign fish supplies.

The wide-ranging study of at-risk sea mammals by the Natural Resources Defense Council lists Canada first among foreign offenders, accusing Ottawa of failing to match U.S. regulations aimed at easing the plight of the right whale, fewer than 500 of which are believed to exist.

Yet, with the U.S. importing an estimated 91 per cent of its total seafood supply — Canada and China are among the top providers, each with annual shipments approaching $1 billion — nearly all the fish that ends up on American dinner tables is caught in violation of federal U.S. law, the report concludes.

“The United States can make a difference — but only if the law is enforced” and American consumers add pressure by voting with their wallets against foreign fish, including Canada’s, said Zak Smith, an attorney with the NRDC and co-author of the report.

Failure to enforce the 40-year-old U.S. Marine Mammal Protection Act, said Smith, enables the unintended killing or injury of as many as 650,000 sea mammals each year by foreign fisheries supplying the American market. The report cites other at-risk species worldwide, including the New Zealand sea lion, the Mediterranean sperm whale and Spinner dolphins ensnared in the Indian and Sri Lanka tuna industry.

Close watchers of the Canadian seafood industry welcomed, in general terms, the thrust of the NRDC report. But some were wary of the call for a U.S. boycott, saying blanket criticism of the Canadian lobster and crab fisheries is misplaced.

“The U.S. does have a lot of fishery management in place and there’s an excellent opportunity here for the Canadian government to improve our own rules and get this right in moving toward sustainability. So the pressure on Ottawa is welcome,” said Dr. Robert Rangeley, a marine mammal specialist with
World Wildlife Fund Canada
.

“But what’s important to understand is the Canadian industry is already working hard and creatively to come up with real solutions to reduce entanglements with North Atlantic right whales, even as it awaits further guidance from the federal government. And the latest science strongly suggests the lobster fishery alone is not the problem and that the Canadian crab industry is pretty much blameless in this.

“So my worry is that a lobster boycott would be misguided, inaccurate and not ultimately solve the problem.”

NRDC officials told the Star that breakaway fishing gear with weak points to enable ensnared whales to escape are among the adaptations forced upon U.S. fishers under American law. That, said Rangeley, is one approach that might improve outcomes in Canadian waters.

“The problem in Canada is there’s a lot of rope in the water, and it’s not just for lobster,” said Rangeley. “The groundfish industry (which pursues mostly cod, haddock, pollock and hake) also involves hazards for the whales using gillnet and bottom longlines.

“What we’re seeing is a strong, concerted effort by the Canadian lobster industry to reduce that fixed gear, to tighten those lines and shrink the amount of rope in the water.

“And what we need from Ottawa now is a two-pronged management plan that puts the same measures in place for groundfish. And at the same time to create seasonal exclusion zones around critical right whale habitat. The industry is able to do some of this on its own, in terms of voluntarily reducing obstacles in the water. But they need federal guidance, in spelling out the rules for where and when they can fish. And that’s a key piece we are waiting on now.”

Fishing isn’t the only threat to the North Atlantic right whale. Though as many as 100 of the estimated 500 remaining right whales become entangled in fishing gear each year, a second major threat involves ship strikes. Those impacts were reduced substantially, however, with the
rerouting off a major shipping lane
off Grand Manan Island near the mouth of the Bay of Fundy, said the WWF’s Rangeley.

“The route to the port of Saint John (N.B.) went right through well-known summer feeding areas for the right whales,” said Rangeley.

“But a really concerted effort involving a number of different organizations working with the International Maritime Organization led to the rerouting of the shipping lanes to sharply reduce the risk of ship strikes.”

The NRDC report said Ottawa acknowledged the right whale crisis in 2009, announcing a recovery strategy aimed at reducing harmful interactions between fishing gear and whales.

But Canada “has failed to enact any regulations such as time or area closures or gear modifications” in the years since, the report said, meaning unintended bycatch “continues unabated in Canadian waters.”

The Canadian Department of Fisheries and Oceans was expected to make a statement on the NRDC report later Tuesday.

More from the Toronto Star & Partners

LOADING

Copyright owned or licensed by Toronto Star Newspapers Limited. All rights reserved. Republication or distribution of this content is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Toronto Star Newspapers Limited and/or its licensors. To order copies of Toronto Star articles, please go to: www.TorontoStarReprints.com